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Col. James Brown Refutes Murtha on Iraq War
A U.S. field commander in Iraq countered calls by a usually pro-military congressman for withdrawal of Americans fighting there Friday, while Democrats defended Rep. John Murtha as a patriot even as they declined to back his view. "Here on the ground, our job is not done," said Col. James Brown, commander of the 56th Brigade Combat Team, when asked about Murtha's comments during a weekly briefing that American field commanders routinely give to Pentagon reporters. Speaking from a U.S. logistics base at Balad, north of Baghdad, two days before his scheduled return to Texas, Brown said: "We have to finish the job that we began here. It's important for the security of this nation." The withdrawal demand by Murtha, a veteran Pennsylvania Democrat, lent more intensity to the increasingly hot Iraq debate. Some members of the House and Senate, looking ahead to off-year elections next November, are publicly worrying about a quagmire there.
Story Continues Below "Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency," Murtha, a longtime hawk on foreign and military affairs issues, said Thursday. "They are united against U.S. forces and we have become a catalyst for violence. The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion." Republicans pounced, chastising Murtha for advocating what they called a strategy of surrender and abandonment. "I won't stand for the swift-boating of Jack Murtha," Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, responded Friday. Also a Vietnam veteran, Kerry was dogged during the campaign by a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that challenged his war record. "There is no sterner stuff than the backbone and courage that defines Jack Murtha's character and conscience," Kerry said. For his part, Kerry has proposed a phased exit from Iraq, starting with the withdrawal of 20,000 troops after December elections in Iraq. A Kerry spokesman said "he has his own plan" when asked if Kerry agreed with immediate withdrawal.
As a Vietnam veteran and top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee with close ties to many military officers, Murtha carries more credibility with his colleagues on the issue than a number of other Democrats who have opposed the war from the start. "Our military has accomplished its mission and done its duty," the 30-year lawmaker told reporters at news conference with American flags arrayed behind him. "It's time to bring them home," he said. Bush administration officials have been cautious in responding to Murtha. "We have nothing but respect for Congressman Murtha's service to his country," White House communications director Nicolle Wallace told NBC's "Today" show Friday. "And I think he spoke from the heart yesterday. We happen to have a real serious policy disagreement with him." Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, a 29-year Air Force veteran who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for nearly seven years, called Murtha's position unconscionable and irresponsible. "We've got to support our troops to the hilt and see this mission through," he said. Said House Speaker Dennis Hastert: "They want us to retreat. They want us to wave the white flag of surrender to the terrorists of the world." Referring to President Bush, Murtha had said, "I resent the fact, on Veterans Day, he criticized Democrats for criticizing them." The GOP-controlled Senate on Tuesday defeated a Democratic push for Bush to lay out a timetable for withdrawal. Spotlighting mushrooming questions from both parties about the war, though, the chamber then approved a statement that 2006 should be a significant year in which conditions are created for the phased withdrawal of U.S. forces. Murtha estimated that all U.S. troops could be pulled out within six months. He introduced a resolution Thursday that would force the president to call back the military, but it was unclear when, or if, either GOP-run chamber of Congress would vote on it. On the Senate floor Thursday, Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called on Bush and the White House to stop what he called an orchestrated attack campaign. "It's a weak, spineless display of politics at a time of war," said Reid, who spoke while Bush was in Asia. With a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts, Murtha retired from the Marine Corps reserves as a colonel in 1990 after 37 years as a Marine, only a few years longer than he's been in Congress. Elected in 1974, Murtha has become known as an authority on national security whose advice was sought out by Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Murtha's shift from an early war backer to a critic advocating withdrawal reflects plummeting public support for a war that has cost more than $200 billion and led to the deaths of more than 2,000 U.S. troops.
© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note:
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